Wanted: original copy of 'Moore's Law'

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After decades of gathering dust on library shelves, the April
19, 1965 issue of Electronics magazine has suddenly become
a very hot commodity. And it's not because vacuum tubes are making
a comeback.

In that issue, future Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon Moore
declared the integrated circuit was the future of the electronics
and predicted the rate of improvement for the semiconductor
industry. The 40th anniversary of what was later coined "Moore's
Law" is Tuesday.

Problem is, neither Moore - nor anyone else currently at
Intel - saved an original copy of the magazine. They have
photocopies, but they want the real thing. Earlier this week, Intel
offered a $US10,000 bounty for a mint-condition copy.

A short time later, a bound volume of Electronics
containing the issue disappeared from the University of Illinois'
engineering library.

"This thing wasn't touched in years," said Mary Schlembach,
assistant engineering librarian at the school in central
Illinois.

So far, there are no clues as to who might have pilfered the
magazine. The university's other copy has since been moved to its
rare book collection where it will be kept under lock and key, she
said. The theft was first reported by the tech news Web site
CNET.

Other libraries have moved to protect their copies.

The University of California, Los Angeles, placed its single
copy on "permanent reserve," which means identification is required
even before it's taken to the photocopier. UCLA also has two copies
on microfilm.

"It had not circulated in 20 years," said Anita Colby, head of
collection development at the campus' science and engineering
library.

Intel, in its original posting on the auction site eBay, said it
was not interested in library copies unless the institutions
themselves were offering it. Intel, which has since pulled its
request, says it's in discussions with people who claim to have
copies.

"Our posting made it clear that we would not buy library or
museum copies unless they sell them directly," Intel spokesman
Robert Manetta said in an email. "We're sure the people we're
talking to aren't involved in what the article describes since
they're outside the US."

Schlembach said the stolen copy had been bound with other issues
of Electronics. If the April 19 issue were to be separated
from the volume, it would hardly be in mint condition.

"You're going to have an issue that's all loose sheets of
paper," she said. "There's nothing to prevent you from regluing it,
but it wouldn't be in pristine shape."

In the article, Moore predicted the number of transistors and
other components crammed on an integrated circuit would double
every year, enabling an era of inexpensive microelectronics. He
subsequently updated the rate of doubling to every two years.

Moore, now 76, said he had no idea then that his article would
remain a hot topic four decades after publication.

"Electronics was one of the trade magazines that you
read and throw away," he said in a recent interview. "It wasn't an
archival journal."

The magazine no longer exists in its current form. McGraw-Hill
sold it to VNU in 1988 and it was sold to Penton Publishing the
following year. In 1995, the magazine became a column in Penton's
IndustryWeek magazine, said McGraw-Hill spokesman Gregory Roth.